The graveyard shift
BY YOON LAI WAN
SCREECH ? once again I manoeuvred my car into the parking area next to the mortuary. I didn?t pick that spot by choice ? that was the designated parking lot for staff at the hospital and I had to park my car there even when I was working the night shift.
In case you?re wondering, I?m a humble medical lab technologist who some people refer to as ?Dracula? because my work concerns body fluids and tissues!
That particular night, I crossed my fingers as I got down from the car and hoped for a quiet night. It was quite chilly and windy and I could feel the wind caressing my face. As I was walking through an alley, two attendants were pushing a covered body to the mortuary and I quietly said a prayer for the departed soul as they passed by me.
When I reached the lab ? located quite near the morgue ? all was quiet except for the machines which were switched on for auto calibration.
Quickly, I put on my white overalls and immediately felt a sense of security against those from the nether world. Some of my friends bring along their holy books and one of them is even known to string a garland of garlic around his neck the whole night.
The pathological specimens started pouring in by the basketsful. I had my hands full and there was no time to think of anything but giving fast and correct reports to the wards.
This kept me occupied for the next few hours and I was pretty tired by then. As the hours ticked by, there were fewer specimens coming in and I decided to take advantage of the lull to have a quick nap.
Unfortunately, I couldn?t sleep as tales of my colleagues? spooky encounters just kept swirling in my head. A few had recounted stories of a strange dark, hairy figure sitting on their chest when they rested so they couldn?t move or shout for help.
Another had heard the sound of soldiers marching and as they got nearer, had closed his eyes out of sheer fear only to feel a gush of warm wind on his face.
A colleague, Aishah, had once brought her child along on her night shift. As it was past midnight, she put her child to sleep in a corner of the lab. All of a sudden, her bag of clothes that was on the table was flung at her. Not wanting to frighten her child, she quietly placed the bag back and went back to work.
Later, she saw shadows moving around and the sound of children?s laughter. Aishah quickly went to the corner to check but found her child fast asleep, but her bag had again been thrown on the floor. That was the first and last time she brought her child along on her calls.
That isn?t the only story I heard involving young ghosts ? attendants who bring in the lab specimens have encountered many sightings of a ghostly figure of a mother sitting on a branch of a rain tree, feeding her child.
As tired as I was, I somehow couldn?t manage to steal forty winks that night. Strange noises were coming from the other side of the lab where the hearses were parked. The vehicle?s doors seem to be opening and closing and the chains around them were clanking away.
Thankfully, I had the windows closed and my overall on (remember, my security blanket!) so I just refused to look that way for I was certain that no drivers came for the hearses in the middle of the night.
I started to perspire and could feel my hair standing on end but I had no choice except to soldier on for this was the profession I chose. This time, I tried covering my head with a sweater. I could feel droplets of sweat rolling down my face.
Then I heard a familiar sound close by. It was the screeching of a metal stool being dragged across the floor. I could feel something looking down at me. The more frightened I became, the louder the chair was dragged. Finally, I couldn?t stand it anymore.
I decided it had to be either me or that illusive thing who would emerge the ?champ?? on that dark and chilly night. With a prayer in my heart and all the guts that I could muster, I removed the sweater and stared hard at the chair. It stopped moving!
Whatever it was vanished into thin air and it was suddenly so quiet, I would have been able to hear a pin drop. I was thankful that it was nearly the break of dawn, which meant that the specimens ? of the work variety ? would start coming in once again.
Source: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.a ... =lifefocus
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